There is a great need for new treatments for viral diseases. Although great progress has been made in the development of treatments for various bacterial infections, there are only few feasible treatments for viruses. Among important drugs for treating human immunodeficiency virus, Zidovudine is well recognized. Ganciclovir, acyclovir and foscarnet are currently used to treat herpes virus infection. However, these treatments have considerable side effects because they impair the replication of host cell DNA or only have effect for a limited number of viral infections. In addition, it is known that viruses can develop resistance to these treatments, and thus reducing the therapeutic effect.
Herpesviridae is a family of DNA viruses, including herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2), cytomegalovirus (CMV), varicella-zoster virus (VZV), Epstein-Barr virus, human herpesvirus-6 (HHV6), human herpesvirus-7 (HHV7), human herpesvirus-8 (HHV8), pseudorabies virus, rhinotracheitis virus, and the like.